No LGBT couples?

[NickieNikita]

In literally any of the DLCs or in the basegame, there's no LGBT couples to be seen? Super disappointing tbh :( There's that joke email from Not George Michael and the "stereotypical ♥♥♥ guy" email but no couples in either HGTV, Luxury or Pets? Please do better. It would take literally no effort, but mean so much to people like me.

Edit: Oh wow, I didn't know there were so many people on here with literally nothing better to do than be cruel on steam forums but alright. Allow me to address some of the points several of you have raised in less than polite ways (seriously, y'all talk to your mothers like this, too?)

1) For starters, I'm not trolling. This was a genuine question, coming from a genuine place of disappointment.

2) Sorry folks. Games have always been political. I'm sorry I had to be the one who broke these news to you, but all media you consume be it music, games, movies, shows etc have political influences behind them. Every action movie you've ever watched made in the US featuring the military has military funding and aren't allowed to depict them in a negative light and so on.

3) At no point in my question was I demanding they implement anything right away. I was expressing my disappointment over something I found to be - in my opinion - a major oversight in what is supposed to be a depiction of the real world. I suppose to a lot of you, queer people don't exist in the real world. I'm sorry to hear that. We make the world a lot more colorful if nothing else.

4) To that one person who claimed we have to change people slowly and over time: legit laughed at that, thanks. As we all know, we all got civil rights the peaceful and slow way, and it all turned out super well. None of us are having any issues living our lives anymore after we got those rights. If black people are still being literally lynched still in several American states (I'm not American but do yourselves a favor and look up sundown towns) after hundreds of years of violent racism, I'm not willing to wait for my rights or ask permission to exist without being murdered, thanks.

5) Last point I wanna address: no, of course I don't think the devs had any cruel intentions behind their oversight. If the entire staff is manned by cishets, it's a no-brainer this gets overlooked. The same way black/brown skins for the hands has been overlooked, which would take no effort to change, as it's just a texture change, but you're probably going to complain about that, too, aren't ya? This game is clearly a labor of love, as proven with the many free updates, and I'm not dissing on that. Like I've said, I'm only expressing my disappointment as I feel non-represented.

I hope you all have a great day, and also do some soul searching and ask yourself why an innocent question on a forum about house flipping made so many of you see red and froth at the mouth. You might not like the answer <3

P.S: I would LOVE if they included handicapped people, or people with mental illnesses, as I think it'd be a fun challenge to design a house interior for someone with mobility issues, or clean up a person's depression clutter, so thanks for the great suggestions!

[Deedog]

watch out guys it's the alphabet gang coming through again !

[xxmrcoffeexx]

LGBT makes up less than 6% of the US population, and yet they need to be shoehorned into every single video game and movie or else some crybaby will have a tantrum... get over yourself.

[tatiana]

I have 4 points to make. Let me list them all in order.

1. As some people have pointed out from the very start, Georgio Shanua is most probably ♥♥♥ (or at least comes across as "camp", for lack of a better word), and mentions having a friend who needs a separate bathtub.

2. Steam is a platform that is used in many countries of the world. Some of them might be using Sharia law, which states homosexuality is illegal. And while Georgio Shanua's sexuality can only be determined via "circumstantial evidence", the "new style" voiced characters used in the last two expansions of HF wouldn't be so easy to hide. Which would make the game off-limits for large areas of the Middle East.

3. I'm currently residing in the UK, but I'm originally from Russia. When the Russian president was going for his third term in office, he needed some scapegoats to distract people's attention from his lack of legitimacy. So a law was passed, banning "the propaganda of homosexuality to children". Like many of the laws passed since, this one seems to be deliberately worded to allow for multiple interpretations.
As a result, Sims 4 has an 18 certificate in Russia, because "God forbid somebody might make same-♥♥♥ characters kiss". And HF always positioned itself as family-friendly. Why artificially restrict the potential user base?

4. Steam doesn't accept Russian payment methods anymore, but when the ban is lifted, some Russians might get offended by a voiced same-♥♥♥ couple with a story, and boycott the game altogether, not to mention starting homophobic discussion threads. Homophobia is practically state policy in Russia now, used in the media (particularly on TV) to argue for the country's "moral superiority to the collective West". And statistically, Russia is one of the top 10 countries with the most Steam users.

In short, this issue is a lot more risky for any game developer than most people realise.

[PenBeatsSword]

All the people complaining about this post are missing the point. If none of you care because 'it' a just a houseflipping game' then why do you care if there are LGBT+ couples or not. It's a small ask to have representation across the board because everything we consume, games, media, hell even the magazines we see in shops promote the 'norm'. We can't ever include everyone in society if we exclude them even from something as small as the generic background characters. If we can have all heteronormative characters then we can have LGBT+ characters too.

[issssk]

Diposting pertama kali oleh PenBeatsSword:

All the people complaining about this post are missing the point. If none of you care because 'it' a just a houseflipping game' then why do you care if there are LGBT+ couples or not. It's a small ask to have representation across the board because everything we consume, games, media, hell even the magazines we see in shops promote the 'norm'. We can't ever include everyone in society if we exclude them even from something as small as the generic background characters. If we can have all heteronormative characters then we can have LGBT+ characters too.

We care about not politicizing things. Just like we don't want songs to be rewritten, books be burned and redone, movies be censored etc. just because it might offend someone. Forced inclusion of characters is positive censorship. And we definitely do not want to include "everyone". You don't want that either.
And by the way, you know that the game allows mods? Whats stopping you from learning to mod and creating LGBT stuff? You're just demanding others to work to cater your needs.

[Playzr 🐵]

Maybe this is something the modding community can add if they're so inclined.
I think the whole censorship thing is ridiculous and some of these countries are simply fascist dictatorships. But that's a whole other debate I'd rather not get into. Everybody can change.

[Sarah Palin]

The fact that this post has not been locked in 2 days is shocking lol

[Pezkiller]

why must everything be super inclusive --> "Sorry folks. Games have always been political" <-- well it was not political... until YOU made it so. why most EVERYTHING be "inclusive" this game is about the house. to me the "renters/buyers" are not even on my mind 90 percent of the time because i could not care less how they want it unless i'm doing the missions for the dlc.

that being said i'm not saying they should not add it, i'm just saying by trying to push agendas one way or another is what puts said agenda in a bad light.. brings controversy.
ITS A GAME not real life.. leave your political and religious values at the log in page. adding religious and political values to a game limits creator creativity because then they have to tip toe to avoid offending anyone. and once you please one group.. you got to start pleasing all groups. its impossible.

let a game be just that.. a game.. enjoy it.. for how the creator made it

[N7J6M]

I'm a trans woman and I don't give a fudge about the character's in the game, I just want to do their job, take their money, and unlock the house so I can do things my way. It's a game for decorating houses not some declaration of rights, next somebody will be saying we are not showing enough support for Ukraine because their isn't a Ukrainian character in the game, just go paint some rainbows and chill out.

[Venez]

Just enjoy the game??

[Nad]

Please, that's an freaking just only GAME, not some idealistic point of view of real life... ! At some point, I want to say, will be allowed to show some hetero couple ? It seems, in real life, that it will be a shame at some point.

Please consider a game as it is. A FREAKING GAME. No, the violents games didn't commit real murders, dispate the TV said so (and they never lied, barf...)... No, a game with hetero couple will not set every couple hetero in real life... That not set that we have to see every virtual couple as "♥♥♥, LGTB, non gender, ♥♥♥ but "I have change my s*x so we're actually hetero by fact, even we were ♥♥♥ before", etc nonsense...

It's A FREAKING GAME and the PNJ aren't AT ALL important in this game, wtf ?!

[the-nug-king]

Everyone going, "it's about house flipping, don't bring sexuality into it!": Sexuality was included in it the moment they first mentioned a straight couple. We're not expecting House Flipper to have every single character go, "hello I'm ♥♥♥, isn't diversity important, please paint my house in pride colours!" It would just be kind of nice to, idk, have a female client go, "hey can you do up this house before me and my wife move in?" just once or twice. How is that different from all of the straight couples in the game?

(That said, I would still be up for painting a house in pride colours.)

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

Diposting pertama kali oleh ֆȶǟǟʀɨ:

I want a vegan couple :p

I just wonder when we will be seeing requests for genderless aliens and elves. :P

[SwordsNRoses]

Diposting pertama kali oleh issssk:

We care about not politicizing things. [...] Forced inclusion of characters is positive censorship. And we definitely do not want to include "everyone". You don't want that either.

Please stop with this argument, because I can guarantee 100% that you're the type of person who, if the devs did include a ♥♥♥ couple, would throw up your hands and complain that it's now a "politicized" game. Can LGBTQ+ people exist in your world without being "political"? Why or why not? Really reflect on that.
The sentence, "Forced inclusion of characters is positive censorship," is gibberish. The devs have diversified their characters since the Luxury DLC. The owner of the pet adoption store is a Black man. Are they "self-censoring" because of it? No. The devs made the choice to include more diversity and it's improved the game for a lot of people.

[SwordsNRoses]

Diposting pertama kali oleh the-nug-king:

Everyone going, "it's about house flipping, don't bring sexuality into it!": Sexuality was included in it the moment they first mentioned a straight couple.

Exactly! I think your suggestion about it in a text mention is excellent. And then, to the person that made the point about countries who aren't as accepting, if the devs really wanted to, they could change the line. (I wouldn't, but that's another topic.)